TRON

Tron is an arcade video game manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway in 1982. It is based on the Walt Disney Productions motion picture Tron released in the same year. Events from this science fiction film were the inspirations for four subgames of which the game consists. It features some characters and equipment known from the film, eg. the Light Cycles, battle tanks, the Input/Output Tower. The game earned more than the film's initial release.

In 1983, Midway released the sequel arcade game Discs of Tron, which was inspired by the disc throwing combat sequence of the film.

Level keywords

Each of the 12 difficulty levels has a different keyword. They all relate in some way to computing, and most of them are programming languages. The keywords are, from lowest difficulty to highest: RPG, COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN, SNOBOL, PL1, PASCAL, ALGOL, ASSEMBLY, OS, JCL, USER.
Subgames

1. I/O Tower

This segment of the game mimicks Tron's quest to enter the Input/Output tower from the motion picture. In the arcade game, the player must destroy large numbers of Grid Bugs with Tron's disc and clear a path to the flashing circle, which must be entered before a timer runs out to complete the section.

2. MCP Cone

This area imitates Tron's final battle against the MCP. The game's interpretation has the player destroying a multicolored wall in front of the MCP cone and getting by the wall, into the cone. A 1.000 point bonus is awarded for completing the level, and an additional 1.000 points is given for destroying all blocks of the wall.

3. Battle Tanks
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The blue cycle loses the game as it hits the yellow light wall

The Battle Tanks subgame is not strictly based on film events but the tanks are taken from there. The player must guide Tron's red tank through a maze and destroy several blue tanks or red recognizers controlled by the computer. This must be done without taking any hits from enemies. If the player drives into the purple diamond in the center of the maze, the tank is warped to a random area of the maze. A bug in the game results in a cheat option. When the player's tank is not touching the white line in the corridors, it can not be hit by the enemy's fire. But it can still be rammed by enemy tanks.

4. Light Cycles

This game is well known and associated with the Tron franchise. The player must guide a blue Light Cycle in an arena, while avoiding to run into the walls and trails (walls of light) created by his own and opposing yellow Light Cycles. With quick manoevers the player must force the enemies to run into walls. The enemy cycles have a fixed behavior pattern for each level and the player can find a pattern which will defeat them every time on this level. Template:Endspoiler
Arcade cabinet

Tron was distributed in three types of cabinets: the standard upright, the mini upright, and the cocktail (table) version. The upright cabinet is designed as movie tie-in. It has, as a special feature, two blacklights and fluorescent lines painted on, resembling the blue, red etc. circuit lines from the film Tron. In a darkened room or arcade the lines glow.

All cabinets feature an 8-way joystick for moving, with one button for firing or speed control, and a rotary dial for controlling the direction of the fire. The game can be played by one player or by two alternating players as the controls are made for only one player at a time.